Ian Malcolm's Discussions

I know that the problem of evil has been beaten to death...BUT how do you respond to theistic argument that God does not guarantee that evil and suffering will not occur. To me, this is a fatal flaw…Continue

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"i'm calling this one "Halo Hokum".
My strong golden ale turned out AWESOME. It has a final gravity of 1.020, giving it about 9% ABV, excellent complexity, a beautiful balance of phenolic character, fruitiness, and bitterness. The…"

"Have a half-sister that I never met, only spoke to a few times on the phone and through email, and friended her on facebook. The other day her status was "Such a beautiful day today. God is great!" I'm like wow, yeah, allahu akbar!…"

"I think I'll start by disavowing that this is a satisfactory answer to your question; but . . .
First, I like to quote Archibald MacLeish's play J.B. (based on the biblical Book of Job): "If God is God, God is not good. If God is…"

"I'm afraid that you are tilting with windmills by trying to argue with a theist. I don't think the problem with evil can be summed up more succinctly than Epicurus'es statement. If you have the patients to corner a…"

"Yeah it just utterly collapses upon itself. I had discussions where the theist would say that we have free will because god wants to either test us or educate us. Well how fucked up is that! Here is what I wrote previously:
Apparently (the…"

"I think that what I am getting at is the argument that the world includes suffering and, basically, that god has no responsibility to prevent or mitigate it.
Of course I agree with all of you. I think the whole thing is rife with internal…"

"Sorry to just be cutting and pasting my argument from another discussion here, but as I just wrote it and the discussion seems to be multiplying, then I suppose so shall my responses! Here it was:
It's all so ridiculous. According to…"

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able,
Then he is not omnipotent.
If he is he able, but not willing,
Then he is malevolent.
If he is he both able and willing,
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing,
Then why call him…"

I know that the problem of evil has been beaten to death...BUT how do you respond to theistic argument that God does not guarantee that evil and suffering will not occur. To me, this is a fatal flaw in the existence of a benevolent god. This gets enmeshed with free will in Christian theology as either a test or a fact of human existence, apparently designed by a god. Another alternative is that this benevolent god is not omnipotent.See More

"I can't believe nobody responded to this! This will probably never even not noticed. Oh well.
The "before the Big Bang" part is problematic, and nobody has an answer to what this even means. Before the Big Bang is meaningless if time…"